Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu was one of the greatest violinists of Carnatic music. He was extremely near-sighted almost to the point of blindness. Among many of his admirers were Sarojini Naidu, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, S,Radhakrishnan and Rabindranath Tagore. So impressed was Tagore that he sang Rabindra Sangeeth to Dwaram’s accompaniment. Dwaram was the first violinist to be conferred Sangitha Kalanidhi in1941. To relocate him from Andhra to Madras a Sammana Mahotsav was arranged and a princely sum of Rs.35,000 was collected. Dwaram accepted this award provided Rs 2,000 was given to his guru, Venkatakrishnayya and another Rs 2,000 to a violinist who had written damagingly about him in the 1920s but was now sick and requiring help. Compassion was his hallmark. During the 1954 visit of Yehudi Menuhin to India Dwaram attended his performance with Dr.P.V.Rajamannar. At the end of the programme Rajamannar took him backstage to introduce him to Menuhin. Dwaram wanted to touch Menuhin’s instrument and possibly play on it as well. But the latter did not agree. The upset Rajamannar arranged a concert of Dwaram’s the very next day and invited Menuhin to attend the same. At the end of the performance Menuhin was so amazed at Dwaram’s virtuosity that he walked up to him, took him by his hand and apologized for his brusqueness the previous day. The two spent the entire evening together and Dwaram was not only allowed to touch Menuhin’s violin but also play on it to his heart’s content. - Excerpts from Sriram Venkatakrishnans Carnatic Summer, Sreemathi Ramnath hoping to catch the violin trio on Sat :)
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 03:57:57 +0000
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